About the Author
Jody Ordioni is a keynote speaker, author, founder and chief branding officer of Brandemix, a New York-based branding and communications agency that solves challenges through defining and marketing organizational culture to the people who drive business forward. With experience working across a wide range of industries from retail and tech to non-profit and healthcare, she is best-known for her work in keeping the relationship between the employee and employer authentic, engaging and true to the company's brand.
Featured Excerpts
Time is moving quickly and organizations that are fast to change and seize opportunities are realizing greater financial rewards. And yet, the greatest barrier to change is creating understanding and emotional support in the hearts and minds of the talented employees responsible for achieving it.
How can branding help?
The essence of branding is the successful alignment of the rational and emotive sides of our brains, creating rapid acceptance of new ways of thinking and acting.
Someone once described the optimal state of talent engagement as a CEO, a dog and a Frisbee. Wherever the CEO throws the Frisbee, the dog is there to catch it -- running joyously, deftly changing course and returning it with a wagging tail. But now consider if instead of one dog, there were a thousand eager canines. Think of the impact we could have if we could harness such positive energy, and create such an agile army of talent, ready to pivot, change direction and chase down new opportunities.
If this sounds like the kind of impact you’d like to make within your workplace, then congratulations. You’re ready to enter the exciting world of Talent Branding.
Branding vs Talent Branding
Although this book is devoted to talent branding, in reality there is really no such thing. Your company only gets to have one brand. It’s not as if you can have a consumer brand that targets consumers, a talent brand that targets employees and an investor brand that targets investors or donors.
The reason for this is that you only get one reputation.
We don’t isolate our opinion of a company when considering it as an employer, a product maker or service provider. We distil, weigh and assess everything we know about a company and formulate one attitude towards it.
Think about your own recent service experiences. Do you have a favourite store that you visit frequently, where the employees know your name and your buying preferences? What about the barrister at Starbucks who knows just how you like your coffee? Doesn’t this keep you coming back?
That’s why the benchmark of a truly successful talent brand is how well it’s aligned with the consumer/product brand.
The Talent Branding Architecture
At the foundation of every talent brand lives the talent brand architecture, the structure of the talent brand from employer brand vision to the Employer Value Proposition.
The talent brand architecture development process is the thoughtful examination and structure of your business, talent strategy and culture. It also integrates the most significant properties of organization and its various parts, such as people, products and services.
And, it’s no surprise that it is in the shape of a house since it provides the foundation for everything that comes after.
